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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






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BRIEF MEMORIAL. 



MEMOIR 



OP 



ROBEIIT HENEY HUNKINS. 




"B."^ 



WRITTEN FOR THE MASSACHUSETTS SABBATH WHOOL SOCIETY, AND 
APPROVED BY THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION. 




BOSTON: 

MASSACHUSETTS SABBATH SCHOOL SOCIETY, 

Depository, No. 13 Cohnhill. 



43^ / 



. HnFc 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, 

BY THE MASSACHUSETTS SABBATH SCHOOL SOCIETY, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 

Well-Spring Prea8,-»Wrght & Potter, Printers, No. 4 Spring Lane. 



MEMOIR 



OP 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 



Robert Henry Hunkins, a member 
of the Old South Sabbath School, in 
Boston, in a class of which Mr. Bar- 
zillai M. Howe was the teacher, died 
on the 12th of January, 1859, in the 
evening of the day on which he was 
nine years of age, having been born 
on the 12th of January, 1850. Pre- 
viously to this, his parents had been 
called to mourn for their first-born 



MEMOIR OF 



child, whose name he bore. He began 
to talk at a very early age, and always 
showed a deep interest in things of 
a religious nature. 

It is not my wish in this affection- 
ate tribute to his memory, to say, or to 
intimate, that he had no faults. Even 
a pagan poet has said that "no one 
is born without faults, and he is 
best who is troubled by the least in 
number." Perhaps some of his class- 
mates in the Sabbath school, and his 
dear parents at home have noticed 
sometimes what they deemed to be 
faults in his character and conduct. 

Neither is it my wish in what I shall 
write respecting him and his short 
life, — to minister to any thing like a 
morbid and mistaken idea that Robert 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 



was SO greatly superior to all other 
children of his own age, that none 
now living, and some of them possibly 
members of the same school, can be 
reasonably compared with him for 
excellence of character, and quickness 
and intelligence of mind. I do not 
think his parents desire to indulge 
in any weak and too partial admira- 
tion of him, as a child so very uncom- 
mon, that few, if any other children 
can be supposed to equal or even 
surpass him. They both feel and 
think with Christian modesty of their 
dear departed son, the last and only 
remaining child of three, whom it has 
pleased God to remove from them by 
death in their earliest life. And it 
would be very unchristian in me, or 



6 MEMOIR OP 



in any one, to try and persuade 
them or others, by any too partial 
and exaggerated representations, that 
Robert was such a prodigy, as to 
make it necessary to give this notice 
of his life and death in such terms 
of eulogy, as to represent him any 
better or more remarkable than he 
really was. I shall try to represent 
his character and life just as they ap- 
peared to me, and to those who knew 
him best. 

It is certainly the case that his early 
quickness and maturity of intelligence 
often alarmed his mother, — she even 
wept in secret places, when she could 
not but notice, with others, some of 
the undeniable evidences he gave of an 
intelligence, and also a clearness and 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 



depth of religious and moral thought, 
beyond his years. So deeply, indeed, 
was she impressed, in the earliest part 
of his life, that there might be a dis- 
eased prematurity in her son, that she 
tried to keep him back in his efforts 
to learn, lest she. might too greatly 
encourage and stimulate him in what 
seemed to be unnatural, and there- 
fore dangerous in his constitution of 
mind and body. 

And yet, notwithstanding these af- 
fectionate and prudent efforts to re- 
strain and not stimulate him, it is a 
fact that he learned his letters soon 
after he was two years of age, by 
asking the names of the large ones 
he saw on the signs in the streets, 
and by the time he was three years 



8 MEMOIR OF 



old, he could read so that those who 
were accustomed to the imperfect pro- 
nunciation and emphasis of such early 
years, could easily understand him. 

When, however, we have thus care- 
fully and candidly noticed these several 
points, and tried to be strictly faithful 
in noting all the modifications in our 
views of Robert's character which they 
seem to require, we are constrained 
to say that there was in him a clear- 
ness and maturity of Christian char- 
acter, and a brightness and quickness 
of intelligence, which make it not 
only proper, but a duty, to honor 
Christ, the Saviour, in whom he 
trusted in life and death, by making 
them known to others in this notice 
of them ; and especially by present- 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 9 

ing them to the superintendent, and 
teachers, and pupils, in the Sabbath 
school, to most of whom he has been 
somewhat known, and to all of whom, 
as well as to those who without being 
immediately connected with the school, 
are members of this church or society, 
it will be profitable to contemplate 
his short, but interesting and instruc- 
tive life, and his early death. 

Robert was remarkably intelligent 
in his looks. He had a bright, black 
and intelligent eye. His head was 
well formed, and indicative of a quick 
and active intellect. His manner of 
speaking impressed any one who 
listened to him, with the conviction 
that he had very clear perceptions 
of outward objects, and as clear ideas 



10 MEMOIR OP 



of the thoughts awakened in his mind, 
and the knowledge stored in his mem- 
ory. 

That memory was uncommonly ac- 
tive and retentive. Whatever he saw, 
or heard, or read, he was not likely 
to forget. I remember that one of 
the first events which awakened my 
own attention and interest in him, 
and that of other persons who were 
present, in a special manner, was, the 
striking correctness, both of word and 
emphasis, with which he repeated 
in rhyme the names of the various 
books of the Old Testament, in one 
of our annual meetings of the mothers 
and children of the Maternal Asso- 
ciation, connected with our church. 
The piece to which I allude is printed 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 11 

in a little Sabbath school book pub- 
lished by the American Tract Society, 
New York, and entitled, " Songs for 
the Little Ones at Home." It will 
give us some idea of the interest it 
was suited to excite, when well and 
correctly repeated by quite a young 
boy, then, only three years and four 
months old, to record it here : — 

" The great Jehovali speaks to us 
In Genesis and Exodus ; 
Leviticus and Numbers see, 
Followed by Deuteronomy. 
Josbua and Judges sway tbe land, 
Euth gleans a sbeaf with trembling hand ; 
Samuel and numerous Kings appear. 
Whose Chronicles we wondering hear. 
Ezra and Nehemiah now, 
Esther, the beauteous mourner, show. 
Job speaks in sighs, David in Psalms, 
The Proverbs teach to scatter alms. 



12 MEMOIR OF 



Ecclesiastes then comes on, 
And the sweet Song of Solomon. 
Isaiah, Jeremiah then 
With Lamentations takes his pen. 
Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea's lyres 
Swell Joel, Amos, Obadiah's. 
Next Jonah, Micah, Nahum come. 
And lofty Habakkuk finds room. 
While Zephaniah, Haggai calls, 
Eapt Zechariah builds his walls ; 
And Malachi, with garments rent, 
Concludes the Ancient Testament." 

Some, if not many of those who 
were then present, will remember also, 
so soon as I refer to it, the great 
correctness, both of pronunciation and 
emphasis, and the interest of manner, 
too, with which he came forward at 
the last Sabbath school concert he 
ever attended, on the second Sabbath 
evening of December, the last month 



EGBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 13 

of the last year, after the superin- 
tendent had intimated that he sup- 
posed none of the children had been 
prepared for such an exercise, and 
led on the others who followed him, 
and repeated from the Bible the eigh- 
ty-fourth Psalm. There is a passage 
in that Psalm w^hich, since his death, 
I have always thought of in connection 
with his afflicted father and mother. 
It is that which begins with the fifth 
verse, and ends wdth the seventh : 
" Blessed is the man whose strength 
is in Thee; in whose heart are the 
ways of them; who, passing through 
the valley of Baca, make it a w^ell; 
the rain also fiUeth the pools. They 
go from strength to strength; every 
one of them in Zion appeareth before 



14 MEMOIR OF 



God." The meaning is, blessed are 
they, who in passing through the 
trials and afflictions of this life, make 
them the occasions of increasing their 
love to God, and their desire to resort 
submissively and confidingly to Him 
in the services of His sanctuary; 
drawing comfort from Him there, as 
from wells of salvation, filled by the 
rains of his grace. Just as the 
people described by the Psalmist, as 
they passed through the void and 
desolate region, called Baca, as they 
journeyed towards Jerusalem, made 
wells in the wilderness, which, filled 
by the rains of heaven, quenched 
their thirst, and sustained their vigor 
in their going towards Zion. So may 
his parents derive their strength from 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 15 

God, amid the afflictions through 
which He has been leading them ! 

Equally interesting, too, and almost 
prophetic of his quickly coming death, 
were the last words of a hymn which 
Robert repeated at the close of his 
recital from the Bible on that occa- 
sion : — 

" Oh, may I bear some humble part, 
In that immortal song, — 
Wonder and joy shall tune my heart, 
And love command mv tongue." 

Thus far, I have alluded only in 
general terms, both to the intelligence 
and piety of Robert. It is my wish 
now to present, as briefly as possi- 
ble, some of the facts in his short 
life, by which what I have said, or 



16 MEMOIR OF 



alluded to, will be seen to be justified. 
And in doing this, it will be well, for 
the sake of clearness of statement, to 
attend first to his intellectual qualities, 
and afterwards to his religious char- 
acter. 

His teacher in the Quincy school, 
Miss Page, has authorized me to 
say that he was decidedly the first 
scholar in his class. She states that 
in acquiring and reciting his lessons, 
he was remarkable for entering with 
his whole heart and mind into the 
subject, and never recited the mere 
words only, but understood the subject 
well. She assures me that he was 
not only respected, but beloved by his 
school-fellows ; and this was the more 
remarkable, because he was in his 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 17 

habits somewhat secluded from them, 
and in the time of their daily recess 
usually remained apart from them at 
his place in the school-room, engaged 
in study or meditation. And yet she 
affirms that there was nothing in these 
his habits, which seemed affected or 
assumed for the sake of appearances. 
His school-fellows looked upon him 
as sincere and simple-hearted, and 
therefore they loved, as well as re- 
spected him. He seemed to his teach- 
er to be habitually thinking, either 
on his studies, or on subjects of a 
moral or intellectual kind, so that if 
she suddenly called his attention to 
any of the little acts or objects of the 
school-room, there would be discovered 
for a time a remarkable absence of 



18 MEMOIR OF 



mind, so far as these things are con- 
cerned, which he himself would regret, 
but which was dissipated at the mo- 
ment in which he was spoken to 
respecting any of his studies, or any 
of those higher and serious themes 
on which he loved to meditate. 

His acquisitions and his reading 
were decidedly beyond his years. A 
somewhat amusing illustration of this 
occurred in one of the little domestic 
incidents of his life. 

When he was between three and 
four years old, an acquaintance from 
the country coming to visit his parents, 
instructed her little boy to buy him 
a pretty book to amuse him. The 
book was bought and presented him. 
It wa^ "Mqther Goose's Melodies." 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 19 

He, of course, received it kindly, and 
tried to be pleased with it, and so 
far as possible profit by the reading 
it afi^orded. But little Robert had not 
yet arrived at that period of life, when 
even a learned and aged person may 
read "Mother Goose" with pleasure, 
on account of its historical connections 
with past times, and the subtle infer- 
ences of wisdom which may possibly 
be drawn from it: and it was evi- 
dently hard work for him to elevate 
it to the position which his heart 
prompted him to do, for the sake 
of feeling a proper gratitude to the 
friend who gave it. At last, " the day 
after their departure," he took it up, 
and after having looked at it some 
time, he cast it down on the floor, 



20 MEMOIR OF 



saying, " I should think that C- 



would know better than to buy such 
a silly book as that." 

But it is his religious character 
which it is most appropriate and 
important I should try to present to 
you here. And here, I must say in 
candor, that when I first began to 
notice it, there w^as occasionally such 
an old way, I may call it, of expressing 
himself, that knowing that he had a 
good father and mother, and that the 
mother particularly, — as Avhat tender 
and pious mother does not, — felt and 
expressed a deep interest in the high- 
est religious welfare of her child, I felt 
a little fearful that his words might 
have been caught up from the speech 
of older persons, and were used by him 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 21 

without a sufficiently deep conviction 
and feeling of their meaning. But a 
longer and a better acquaintance with 
him would not allow any one to come 
to such a conclusion. If he did some- 
times speak in what we may call an 
old way, he meant what he said, and 
he felt the power of its meaning. 

He once said to me, as we were 
leaving our house of worship on the 
Lord's day, " I want to come and see 
you and talk about my soul." And, 
after he had come, there was nothing 
in his modes of expression, which 
was not natural and wholly luiaf- 
fected, developing an intelligent and 
religious thoughtfulness on things 
unseen and eternal. 

So, when I first visited him in his 



22 MEMOIR OF 



last sickness, he turned, and said 
with great clearness and earnestness, 
" Dr. B., I am going to die — I want 
to die ! " A stranger might have 
supposed that even these words, spo- 
ken in such solemn circumstances ? 
and by so young a child, might not 
have come from a sufficiently deep 
conviction of all that is implied in 
dying. But the more one conversed 
with him, the more entire would be 
the persuasion that Robert did feel 
the import of these words, and did 
enter, and with the heart too, into 
many of the sublime and solemn 
truths, connected in a Christian's 
mind, with the act of dying. I cannot 
better illustrate this, than by quoting 
to you here some facts respecting his 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 23 

last hours, written down at my re- 
quest, by his dear mother. 

" One night during the early part 
of his illness, he awoke from sleep 
and said, 'How sweet it is, mother, 
to have Jesus with us.' I then said, 
'Do you feel that He is near you 
at this time ] ' ' Oh yes, he is with 
me all the time ! ' " 

At another time he called me to 
the bed-side, and told me he had 
been thinking of the words, " Paul 
may plant, and Apollos water, but 
God giveth the increase." " So it is 
with me ; the doctor can give me the 
medicine, and you can take care of 
me, but unless God give his blessing, 
I shall not get well." 

He expressed no desire for his life 



24 MEMOIR OF 



to be prolonged, except that he might 
be the means of doing good to others. 
During the moments of bodily dis- 
tress he would look up and say, 
" Can't you relieve this agony '? Oh, 
this agony ! " On being told that I 
would willingly take his suffering 
and bear it for him, if God would 
permit, he would then say, "Will 
you pray ? " The voice of prayer, 
which ever was sweet to him in the 
hours of health, was peculiarly sooth- 
ing at such times. While his soul 
joined in these petitions, the distress 
of his mortal frame subsided. 

On Sabbath morning, December 
26, he repeated these lines : — 



Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love, 
But there's a nobler rest above ; 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 25 

To that my longing soul aspires, 

With ardent hope and warm desires." 

At four o'clock he looked up, and 
saw me standing at the bed-side, and 
said, "Perhaps I may spend next 
Sabbath with Jesns in heaven. How 
sweet it would be ! " I then said, 
" How do you feel when you think 
of dying ? " He looked at me, while 
a sweet smile overspread his counte- 
nance, never to be forgotten, and 
said, " Why, mother, I feel that Jesus 
is here, close by me, waiting to go 
down the dark valley." After a few 
moments, I attempted to repeat those 
touching lines : — 

" Jesus can make a dying bed 

Feel soft as downy pillows are, — " 
3 



26 MEMOIR OF 



but my voice faltering, he immediately 
finished the verse, and then added, 
" Yes, mother, and he can make my 
bed soft too." 

On another occasion, after having 
disposed of some books, and spoken 
of absent friends, he said with sweet 
composure, "I know the spot where 
I shall be laid, at the side of brother 
Albert." I then said, "Is there not 
a gloomy feeling, when you think 
that this dear body must be put in 
the cold grave ? " He answered with 
great emphasis, " I shan't be there. 
Oh, dear mother, when you go out 
to the cemetery, don't weep over my 
grave, for you know I shan't be there." 
If he saw me weeping, he would say, 
" Oh, it grieves my heart so, to see 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 27 

you weep when I am going to be so 
happy." 

His greatest desire for all who vis- 
ited him during his sickness, was, that 
they might prepare to meet him in 
heaven. He loved the Sabbath school 
of which he was a member. Many 
times did he say to me, when speaking 
of it, "I hope I shall meet them all 
in heaven." 

He loved the cause of Foreign Mis- 
sions. He had a great desire to be- 
come a Foreign Missionary, that he 
might teach the heathen about the 
Saviour. All his plans were laid for 
the future, in regard to this one great 
object of his life. The day before his 
death he said, •' You know it was my 
aim to be a missionary, if I had lived, 



28 MEMOIR OF 



but God is going to take me home 
to Him; I want to have you give all 
my money to Deacon S., for him to 
send to the heathen." Since his death 
this has been done. It amounted to 
^^20.10. This he had accumulated by 
depositing ^10 in the Savings Bank, 
which with interest, and $5 he had 
since saved, but not deposited, amount- 
ed to this sum ; and before his death 
he was accustomed to give a dollar a 
year to the cause. He had been pre- 
sented with the Memoir of David T. 
Stoddard, just before his sickness. 
On giving it to me, he alluded to 
the fact that he had read but three 
chapters in it. "Well," said he, "1 
shall soon be with him, and then I 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 29 

shall know more about him than if I 
lived, and read the book." 

A few weeks before his illness, after 
reading aloud to me in the Bible, he 
sat in deep thought for some moments. 
I asked him what he was thinking 
about. He answered thus : — " Oh, I 
was thinking w^hen we get to heaven 
God will show us things that the 
angels don't understand." He very 
often comforted himself with the 
thought, that those hard passages in 
the Word of God would all become 
clear to his mind, when he went to 
heaven to live. 

He had a great love for the Sab- 
bath. Often would he say, on Sat- 
urday evening, " How happy it makes 
me to think tomorrow is Sunday. 



30 MEMOIR OF 



How should we live without if? I 
wish every body loved the Sabbath 
day," and other similar expressions. 

The Bible was his favorite book. 
At the age of three years he began 
to learn chapters from this blessed 
volume. The last chapter of Malachi 
was the first he committed to memory. 
His heart became deeply interested in 
the story of Jesus, his life, death and 
ascension to heaven, as I would relate 
it to him in childlike language, before 
he was two years old. When we were 
alone, how often he would say, " Now, 
mamma, do tell me all about Jesus ] " 

From the earliest dawn of child- 
hood he was accustomed to make 
known his requests to God by prayer. 
On one occasion, while I was sitting 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 31 

in the room engaged in sewing, where 
he w^as playing with a train of cars, he 
arose from the floor and came to me, 
saying, " Mamma, I do want you to live 
as long as I do, and take care of me." 
There were tears in his eyes as he 
said this. I was much overcome, and 
clasping him in my arms, w^e sat in 
silence some moments. He then went 
from my lap to the side of the bed, 
and said, " I will ask God to let vou 
live, mamma." He then kneeled 
down, folded his little hands, and 
offered a short, but fervent prayer to 
this effect. This was soon after he 
was three years old. At two years 
he began to kneel with me at the 
bed-side, to pour out his little heart 
in prayer to his Father ^n heaven. 



32 MEMOIR OF 



Never from that time was he known 
to go to his rest at night without 
prayer, excepting once. On this 
occasion, I was unavoidably detained 
from him until he had been put to 
bed for the night. After retiring to 
rest, I was awakened by sobs and 
crying. " What is the matter, dear ] 
are you sick ? " said I. " No, no, 
mamma, do let me get up and pray ! 
I haven't prayed; I am afraid God 
won't take care of me till morning." 
He was very much grieved, and I 
took him from the bed, and wrapped 
him up warmly. He kneeled down in 
the usual spot, and after pouring out 
his little desires to God, laid down 
and slept sweetly until morning. 

" These," says his mother, " are but 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 33 

a very few of the recollections of his 
early life. With others, I may ac- 
quaint you at some future time, if 
necessary." 

And to these reminiscences from that 
affectionate and faithful mother, let 
me now add the short memorial 
received from his Sabbath school 
teacher : — 

" Robert Henry Hunkins entered the 
Old South Sabbath School in March, 
1856. He was only twice late during the 
time he was in my class ; always had 
his lessons correct ; was attentive, and 
appeared devoted^ as well as desirous to 
learn." 

I have spoken of his remarkably 
correct knowled^re of the Bible. This 
will be in some degree shown by my 



34 MEMOIR OF 



reading to you part of a short sermon 
he wrote, but a little time before his 
death, from the text in Amos 4: 12. 

" Prepare to meet thy God." 

First, — this means that we must become 
Christians before we die ; not wait until 
the last moment of our life arrives. Then 
it will be too late. God requires us to 
seek the Lord early, while he may be 
found, and call upon him while he is 
near. Will an individual save himself, 
who has passed his life in infidelity, and 
reading infidel books, by merely crying 
out on his death-bed, God save me ? No, 
he does not do it because he is sorry for 
his past sins, and wishes to be forgiven, 
but because he begins to be afraid that 
there is a heaven or hell, and he shall 
go to hell. 

Secondly, — it means we must prepare 
while we are young. Those that seek me 
early shall find me. Seek the Lord while 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 35 

he may be found, and call upon him while 
he is near. Draw nigh to God, and he 
will draw nigh to you. Resist the devil 
and he will flee from us. Remember now 
thy Creator in the days of thy youth, when 
the evil days come not, nor the days draw 
nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no 
pleasure in them. How pleasing it must 
be to Christian parents, to see their chil- 
dren brought up to be ministers, to see 
them admitted into the church, and when 
they grow older, to see and hear them 
preach the gospel. No doubt, but what 
it reminds them of the words of Luke, 
and they were continually in the temple, 
praising and blessing God. 

Thirdly, we must put our trust in God^ 
not in man. Thus saith the Lord, cursed 
be the man that trusteth in man, and 
maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart 
departeth from the Lord, for he shall be 
like the heath in the desert, and shall not 
see when good cometh, but shall inhabit 
the parched places in the wilderness, in a 
salt land and not inhabited. Hoshea relied 



36 MEMOIR OF 



on So, King of Egypt, but it did him no 
good, for Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, 
carried him captive witli his people into 
Assyria. Zedekiah, King of Judah, called 
Pharaoh, King of Egypt, to his help, but 
he was driven into his own lands ; and 
Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, besieged 
Jerusalem, and took it, and burnt it with 
fire, and carried Zedekiah with his people 
captive. Blessed is the man that trust- 
eth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord 
is. Abijah, King of Judah, trusted in 
God when Jeroboam, King of Israel, was 
encamped against him with twice as large 
an army as his own, and he succeeded. 
Asa, successor of Abijah, conquered by 
trusting in the Lord : but soon his heart 
waxed gross, and he put his trust in man. 
Jehoshaphat, his son, was delivered out 
of the hand of a large multitude by trust- 
ing in the Lord. Hezekiah, also, was 
delivered out of the hands of a large 
army. The lepers, and the centurion, 
and Peter's mother-in-law, the sick of the 
palsy, the diseased with an issue of blood , 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 37 

and the lunatic, and the thief upon the 
cross, showed faith in Christ ; and so 
ought wc to put faith in Christ to for- 
give our sins. For we are all sinners, 
and there is none that doeth good, no, not 
one. And Christ alone can forgive our 
sins. Neither is there salvation in any- 
other; and we must ask God to forgive 
our sins with a feeling that he will forgive 
them, because Christ died for us and has 
promised to forgive us. Ask and it shall 
be given you. Seek and ye shall find. 
Knock and it shall be opened unto you. 
He does not say may or can, but shall. 
Oh, blessed promise ! 

Fourthly, we must resist temptation. 
Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 
Put on the whole armor of God, that ye 
may be able to stand against the wiles of 
the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh 
and blood, but against principalities, 
against powers, against the rulers of the 
darkness of this world, against spiritual 
wickedness in high places. Wherefore, 
take unto you the whole armor of God, 
1 



88 MEMOIR OF 



that ye may be able to withstand in the 
evil day, and having done all to stand. 
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about 
with truth, and having on the breast-plate 
of righteousness, and your feet shod with 
the preparation of the gospel of peace. 
Above all taking the shield of faith, where- 
with ye shall be able to quench all the fiery 
darts of the wicked. And take the helmet 
of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, 
which is the Word of God. Christ over- 
came the devil and he departed. Joseph 
also overcame the temptations of Potiphar's 
wife. So ought we to overcome evil, for 
Satan comes and tempts us. When tempt- 
ed to do any wrong action, we should say, 
as Hagar, " Thou, God, seest me." 

Fifthly, we must be Christians in every 
sense of the word. We must go to church, 
keep the Sabbath holy, feed the hungry, 
clothe the poor, converse with people about 
their souls, bring children into the Sabbath 
school. But above all things, we must 
have faith in God, for without faith it is 
impossible to please God. We can go out 




ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 39 

into some dirty lane in the city, and find 
a little boy clothed in rags, and bring him 
to the Sabbath school, and that little boy 
may grow up and become a useful man ; 
and we can put money in the contribution 
box, and a great many other things which 
I have not mentioned. 

Finally, we must prepare to meet our 
God ; if we do not, we shall be among the 
number to whom the Judge shall say at 
the last day, ^' Depart from me, ye cursed, 
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil 
and his angels ; for I was an hungered and 
ye gave me no meat ; I was thirsty and ye 
gave me no drink ; I was a stranger and 
ye took me not in ; naked and ye clothed 
me not ; sick, and in prison, and ye visited 
me not." Then shall they also answer 
him, saying, " Lord, when saw we thee an 
hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or 
naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not 
minister unto thee ? " Then shall he 
answer them, saying, " Verily I say unto 
you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of 
the least of these, ye did it not to me. 



40 MEMOIR OF 



And these shall go away into everlasting 
punishment, but the righteous into life 
eternal." 

And so this interesting boy has 
gone to join the great multitude of the 
dead : — 

** The innumerable caravan that moves 
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death." 

But as he said to his mother, when 
she asked him, " Is there not a gloomy 
feeling, when you think that this dear 
body must be put in the cold, cold 
grave ? " "I shan't be there ! Oh, 
dear mother, when you go out to the 
cemetery, don't weep over my grave, 
for you know I shan't be there ;" so 
we believe he is not there; his spirit 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 41 

has gone to be with Christ, which is 
far better. 

One of the strongest evidences of 
the life of the soul, though the body 
dies, aside from the direct declarations 
of Christ, who " hath abolished death, 
and hath brought life and immortality 
to light," is seen in this its power to 
speak of the death of the body it 
inhabits, and contemplate before it 
departs the very spot where that body 
shall lie ! 

But he has gone to be with Christ. 
And I leave the history of his short 
life and early death, praying that it 
may be blessed to the spiritual and 
eternal good of the children of our 
Sabbath school, and to the good of all 
of us. 



42 MEMOIR OF 



His mother has said that the last 
chapter in Malachi was the first one 
in the Bible Robert ever committed to 
memory, and I think she has also told 
me that it was always a very pleasing 
chapter to him, ever since he learned 
it. The last verse in that chapter, 
and of course the last verse of the Old 
Testament, is a remarkable one, as 
showing the way in which God designs 
to bless this world, and save it from 
his judgments. It is by making 
parents faithful to their children, and 
causing children to obey their parents 
in the Lord. And it reads as follows : 
may it comfort, as I repeat it, the 
hearts of Robert's parents, as they 
hope that Christ has enabled them 
to be in some measure faithful to their 



ROBERT HENRY HUNKINS. 



4g 



child, and him to be in some meas- 
ure dutiful to them. "And he shall 
tm-n the heart of the fathers to the 
children, and the heart of the children 
to their fathers, lest I come and smite 
the earth with a curse." 

Robert Henry was buried in Forest- 
hill Cemetery, on Spruce Avenue, in 
the lot marked 1260. 




18 July I860, j 



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